By Pia Kauma, OSCE Special Coordinator and Member of Parliament from Finland
Op-ed originally published at Medium.com on 22 October 2024
When Americans go to cast their ballots on November 5, they will not only encounter poll workers and fellow voters at their local polling stations, but also a delegation of international election observers who will be on hand to offer impartial assessments of the process.
The delegation – consisting of some 250 observers, including 150 members of parliament from more than 40 countries – is being deployed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which counts the United States as one of its founding members. I am delighted to have been appointed as Special Coordinator and leader of the short-term observers of this important mission and very much look forward to returning to the United States for this pivotal election.
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Working closely with officials from the U.S. State Department, Congress and state and local election authorities, we intend to fan out across the country for Election Day observation. We very much appreciate the collaboration that we have enjoyed with interlocutors, whose commitment to welcoming observers serves as a reminder of the importance of international cooperation, and we look forward to continuing to build on these relationships through Election Day and beyond.
While Americans may not widely be aware of our activities, this is actually not our “first rodeo,” as you say in America. Having observed U.S. elections since the early 2000s, the OSCE has learned a great deal about the intricacies of U.S. electoral law and has developed a strong methodology for observing in a country so vast and diverse – with our assessments informed both by long-term experts deployed by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, and the elected members of parliament deployed on a short-term basis by the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.
One of the aspects of elections in the U.S. that make it different than most of our countries is the highly decentralized nature of election administration, which relies heavily on authorities at the state and local levels. We have been consistently impressed by the level of commitment that we see from election workers who selflessly fulfill their duties to ensure that Americans can exercise their democratic right to choose their leaders.
Four years after the disputed 2020 election, and following a tumultuous 2024 electoral season that has already seen a number of unprecedented developments – including the withdrawal of the Democratic candidate and multiple assassination attempts on the Republican nominee – we fully appreciate that we are entering a contentious political environment. According to polls, more than three in ten Americans continue to believe that the 2020 election was tainted by fraud, and while our observation mission four years ago found no evidence of this, we have of course identified several areas for improvement over the years.
Following previous elections, the OSCE has highlighted a number of important issues, including campaign financing and redistricting, as well as ballot access obstacles faced by independents and smaller parties. We have repeatedly noted that restrictions on voting rights of felons and ex-felons, and the lack of full representation for residents of Washington, DC, and U.S. territories, may contravene principles of universal suffrage that the United States has committed to.
There have, however, been a number of positive changes in voting laws across several states since 2020, and we look forward to seeing how these changes are implemented. States like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have implemented measures to enhance voting security and accessibility. Other key updates include the expansion of early voting and mail-in ballots in states like Michigan, Virginia, and North Carolina. In Arizona, same-day registration was made more accessible in 2020. These changes aim to improve voter participation and protect electoral integrity.
We will learn more about these developments in our pre-election briefings in Washington by election administrators, stakeholders, experts, pollsters, and journalists to help provide us all the context we need to fully inform our observation. In doing so, we hope to substantively contribute to building confidence in U.S. elections by providing our perspective and expertise, and bringing a fair but critical eye to assessing the United States electoral system for its adherence to international standards.
Whether observing in Europe, Central Asia, or North America, the aim of our election observation missions is the same: to assess the extent to which the election environment is conducive to the exercise of democratic rights and whether the electoral process is characterized by equality, universality, political pluralism, confidence, transparency, and accountability.
These are objectives that all democracies should share, and when observing in other countries we are often joined by U.S. Senators and Congressmen who ensure that these standards are upheld. By offering their cooperation and support for our mission, electoral authorities in the United States further demonstrate America’s steadfast commitment to these core principles.
We look forward to seeing you at the ballot box on November 5!
Pia Kauma is a member of parliament from Finland and serves as President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. For previous OSCE PA assessments of US elections, please click here.
OSCE Parliamentary Assembly